Kinship
by Nikki Pond
Summary: When Tony was looking through his mom's stuff for remembrance, something caught his attention that leads him to searching a secret that his mom had been hiding from everybody, and one that she took to the grave. As Tony's search takes him to New York, where he ends up teaming up with Matt Murdock, to uncover the truth. Part 2 of Vigilante's Consequences. Post-S2 & Post-CA:CW.
1. Chapter 1

**Kinship**

 **Summary:** It's been twenty-five years since Tony Stark lost his parents, and a month since he learned the truth of what really happened on that night. When he was looking through his mom's stuff for remembrance, something caught his attention that leads him to searching a secret that his mom had been hiding from everybody, and one that she took to the grave.

As Tony's search takes him to New York, where he ends up teaming up with Matt Murdock, to uncover the truth, they both find themselves on the run as along the way they discover a lot more than they thought, and much more danger and running as the unimaginable truth emerges.

And Tony suspects the secret is Matt Murdock.

 **Tags** : Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Season/Series 02, Drama, Angst, Family, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, Secrets, Thriller, Action/Adventure, Crime Drama, Suspense, Canon-Typical Violence, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence,

Things You Need to Know:

1.) This story is set after Season 2 of _Daredevil_ and _Captain America: Civil War_ (Both contain spoilers). But beyond that, it's AU and I have no knowledge what happens after that event. I wrote this before _The Defende_ _rs_ S1and _Daredevil_ Season 3 (no spoilers) It's pretty much no compliant beyond S2 and CA:CW (I'll ignore _the Defenders_ S1 and _Daredevil_ S3).

2.) This is connected to my other fic, if you noticed. So technically, this is the sequel. But can be read as a **stand-alone**. This is Part 2 of _Vigilante's Consequences._

I hope you enjoy this ;)

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

 _You did this-_

 _-n't have to say it. It's not—_

 _-Bring them back! God damnit, brin—_

 _-Damage you cost-_

 _-Look, I can't—_

 _-Tony-_

 _-You did this. You did this._

…

Nightmares happened.

Not always. Not everyday. It just happened sometimes.

He would wake up with his chest heaving. The other time, he would stare at the nothingness. His mind blank and wonder for a second what he was thinking.

It still happened.

…

He attended meetings. He listened to Ross' ranting. And he couldn't think about it. His mind would wonder once again, and all he could hear was a car crashing the trees.

…

Sometimes at night, he would look at the phone Steve had given him. And then he would bury it deep into his cabinets before staring at the ceiling, wondering what the world was thinking.

…

"Mister Stark, this is General Ross, calling about your statement that you missed—"

Tony ended the message, leaning back his seat.

He had made many mistakes in his entire life. Some of them, he didn't care because it brought him joy and was obviously delighted. He had been arrogant and selfish at that time, and very careless of what other people think. But the other mistakes, it gave him a dark pit to his stomach and there was the underlying guilt that was eating him up.

One of his mistakes was building nuclear weapons without a thought. The next was trusting Obie, and that was a punch of a gut. His biggest might have been creating Ultron, and he regretted it everyday for what he had started caused in the end. And what effect it had on everyone.

Trusting Steve Rogers, now it had been one of the worst. It hurt in the end for what Steve did, probably much worse when Obie betrayed him. Even when Steve had his reasons, it wasn't _enough_. Tony still couldn't believe what Steve Rogers, the _friend_ he thought he could _trust_ , turned his back on him when he needed him. _Lied_ to him! _Betrayed_ him!

Whatever they had, even when Steve told him in his letter that he would always be there, it's gone. They can never be what they were. Their relationship was damaged and cannot be fixed. Not after that Steve had _lied_ to him! Steve had known what truly happened to his _parents_ , and never told him that Barnes had murdered them.

No, Tony cannot find it in himself to forgive Steve and his pal for this. Never could he find peace in it. The image had burned in his head forever after watching that video.

 _My mom—_

He pushed the aching pain and anger aside before looking at the screens he pulled off.

…

Tony held back the urge to pick up the phone for the past few days. There was nothing comforting about it except how _considerate_ Steve was. Ha! Now he wanted to smash it.

…

His eyes stared at Rhodey and Vision, both looking down at their meal. Tony knew that look. And he knew what was going on.

 _They missed them…_

…

"Are you okay?"

Tony froze. That voice. He thought he would never hear that voice in his presence. The clicking heels moved closer and he watched as Pepper came to view, looking concern at him, and that stunned him much more.

"I heard what happened," she bit her lip as she knelt in front of him, hesitantly reaching out to his face before she rested it in his cheek. Tony closed his eyes, welcoming her touch that was so familiar and comforting. He didn't realize how much he missed this. How much he missed Pepper. "Tony…"

"What are you doing here, Pep?" It took a lot of pushing to say that. Despite how much he wanted this, he knew he had to break it.

"I was worried."

"Well," he let out a bitter chuckle. "You see, I'm fine, thanks for the—"

"Don't give that those crap lies," Her hair brushed against his knuckles, and Tony realized that he was holding her. "Just…tell me what happened?"

Tony looked up to her. Those soft blue eyes staring at him with concern. Her voice wasn't stern as he always heard, but quiet and soft. "I'm fine Pep." He said.

She frowned. "Do you want me to stay?"

He opened his mouth to tell her that he was fine on his own, but her gaze made him stopped. He nodded reluctantly before climbing to bed while Pepper joined with him.

"I'm not leaving you, Tony, I'm _never_ leaving you." She said quietly to his ears before a single tear dropped from his face. "Not now, not ever."

"I thought we're done," Tony said. "It's over between us."

"I said that we just take a break," She rested her head on his shoulder, "But, I think I'm terrible of leaving you anyway."

Tony chuckled a bit. "Yeah right."

"Tony…"

"I want to sleep now."

He heard her sigh before she moved closer to his side, and that was the last thing he felt before sleep took over him.

...

Tony sat at the edge of his bed, looking at the screens he pulled up. It was his parents again, or more specifically, his mother. He watched the video of his mother hugging him—a 14 year old him-while his father looked at them at distance, with an unreadable look on his face.

He watched as his mother seemed to murmur something to his ears. It hadn't been picked up by the cams, but he remembered the words.

"I'm so proud of you, dear."

Then his mother and father walked away while Tony stood next to his butler, gazing at them with love yet saddened once again that they were leaving him. It was the only public footage he could find because it was rare to find one that was entirely between about him and his mother.

His mother and father were leaving to New York for a trip after that, something about a development that needed to be halt. Right now, all he could stare was the picture of his mother. Blonde hair pulled into a bun, wearing that fancy business dress she always wore on a trip.

It was the longest time he hadn't seen his mother. He had seen his father returned after that trip a week later, and told him that his mother was with her old friends back in New York. She came home on Christmas a year and a half later. Tony, sixteen years old, had smiled at the top of the stairs before he gave her a kiss on the cheek. He remembered that she had smiled shakingly at the sight of him and squeezed his shoulder before giving his father a kiss.

Tony needed to see more. He wanted to see his mom so he pulled a footage when she was in New York. She was in a party, wearing her long white dress as she chatted with her friends. He couldn't hear what she was saying, but all he could do was stare at the movement, recalling the way she held him back when he was kid.

Then his brows furrowed when he saw a man leading his mom _intimately_ outside the room. His hand placed at her lower back, but what was surprising was the way his mom looked at him. It was that soft, endearing look with love.

"FRIDAY, who is that?" Tony asked. There was something about this man that sent shivers down his spin, like a cold feeling he did not like


	2. Chapter 2

**Kinship – Chapter 2**

…

"She doesn't have an alibi," Matt said, resting his head at the back of a chair.

"Well she doesn't give me an impression that she's guilty," Rhea said, and from the movement, Matt could tell that she just shrugged as she leaned against his desk.

"Who said she was?"

She snorted. "Maybe we can persuade Harry for a search warrant?"

"It's not exactly in our job description, Rhea," Then he paused when a thought occurred to him, "Where's Joan?"

"She called in sick, said it would probably take a couple of days." She said, distractedly. Matt could hear her fingers moving through his files. "Look at her bank account; she had withdrawn at least $100,000 before the murder happened." He already knew that. "But according to her pre-paid Visa card—this happened last year—she got a ticket to Melbourne."

Matt sat up straight, "Where Theo lives." He said. "Contact the detective working on this case."

"Yes sir," she chirped before jumping off his desk and heading to hers where her phone was.

He sighed as he slowly tuned the world out before taking one of the folders that had been stacked on his desk. He still had to offer Mr. Sky a deal concerning about the crimes he committed, and then there was Mr. Los, who had valuable information about the organization he used to work for. He was supposed to offer him immunity in exchange for information.

Later as he signed some documents, he registered the sound of Rhea heading his way, she said cheerfully, "You never guess what happened?"

"Then don't keep me in suspense."

"Turns out her real name is Becky Gorden."

"She's his sister?" Matt's eyebrows shot up.

"Yup, turns out, she had been living with him two years ago before she moved here. She had been a witness to the whole thing, and then ran away when it went too far."

He sighed. "She tried to escape?"

"And looks like her dear brother didn't like it. He managed to track her down, and tried to threaten her and then tried to kill her."

"So she knows who really killed Mr. Tens?" It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Rhea nodded absently, somehow forgetting that he was blind. "She still won't say, but the detective working on the case managed to track her down in Queens. They are getting there right now."

"Let me know what happened." He returned to his work.

"You know, I finished the rest of my case, I could help with this." Rhea must be eyeing at his case loaded work. "What have you done to piss Harry off?"

Matt sighed heavily, "You didn't hear the news?" From what he could tell, Rhea was shaking her head. "I might have accidentally told a journalist a classified information, and imply the ADA didn't care."

"Yikes."

"I'm on probation."

"So that's why there's a dark cloud over your head. You've been a bit gloomy and sitting here all day," She remarked. "But hey, wanna grab dinner? I'm hungry."

"I have to finish this."

"We can finish it in my place."

"Won't your husband mind?"

"Oh he won't mind," Matt could tell that she made some sort of hand gesture. Probably waving him off. "It's Tuesday." She took his hand and pulled him off the chair. "Come on. My pay."

Matt couldn't help but look amused as he grabbed his coat resting on his chair as Rhea took the rest of the folders and placed them on his bag before he slung it over his shoulder.

"What's Tuesday?" He held her elbow as they walked out of the office, his cane tapping across the marble floor.

"Special Tuesday. I like to call it Thai Tuesday."

"So what's on Wednesday?" he said jokingly.

"Greek Wednesday," She sounded so serious, that Matt couldn't help but laugh. From the twitch of her mouth, he could tell that she was amused too. "Don't laugh, my husband likes world meals."

"Yeah, I could tell. Your husband is certainly fond of travelling."

"He has good taste," she said proudly as they exited the courthouse. "Right now, he's trying to convince me to take me to _Harrison_ 's Cave."

"Please tell me you did not tell Harry about this."

She giggled. "He would give me that unimpressed look. Oh what the fuck, of course he did. I told him this morning!"

His cane hit the pavement as they walked towards where her car was parked. The scent of it was familiar and he held back the grimace. Rhea always bought one of those scents that were too strong for him, and he would still gag as he took the passenger's seat.

"Don't be such a baby," She took the driver's seat. He imagined she was rolling his eyes at him. "It's fine."

No, this was a poison; he mentally disagreed as he put on his seatbelt, trying his best to ignore the strong scent of her car. But since it seemed to be starting to rain, she had to shut the windows and turn on the air condition, leaving him gagging. It was worst when he could hear the sound of tires rolling over the asphalt road and cars honking as they passed by, making him nauseated.

"Oh, shut up."

…

"Leonard Thompson," Tony read the name on the screen.

It was the picture of the man who had seemed to be holding his mother intimately. There were alarm bells ringing that told him that he would definitely not like this. He knew his mother was beautiful, what kind of Stark wouldn't? He had heard from time to time people telling how his mother glowed like a diamond, and how lovely she was. It wouldn't surprise him that his mother had admirers, but there was something about this man that caught his attention. Not only his mother was gazing him with familiarity, but there was love. He'd recognized that look anywhere.

The man had a lean body, even when hiding that tailored black suit. His hair black that was slick back, and had that narrowed silver eyes. His face narrowed with cheekbones. There was no doubt he was some kind of rich-pompous ass, maybe. He had that look that Tony would see everyday in galas.

"Tony, we need to talk."

Tony mentally groaned, but kept his sight on the screen. "I'm kind of busy, Pep."

She huffed. "Tony," He could hear the click of her heels heading his direction, and then he could feel her presence right behind him. "Is that your mom?"

Leonard Thompson used to live in Los Angeles, but moved to New York when he was 30 years old. He owned a couple of mansions and states, and had been into plenty of galas and grand openings. Yeah, there was nothing interesting about this man. But he can never get rid of the image of this Leonard and his mom looking at each other like that.

He nearly jumped when Pepper placed her soft hand on his shoulders, her voice sympathetic, "Your mom looked lovely."

She thought that he wanted to remember his mother. Okay, it did look like it now that he think about it. But wasn't that he was doing? He wanted to know more about his mom, and he did a few years ago after the 'car accident'. It made his teeth gritted at the memory as Obie squeezed his shoulder in comfort at the funeral.

"Yeah, she did." He said softly. A hand squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. Somehow, it didn't really.

* * *

 **Author's Note** : Sorry that it almost took a year for this to be updated. This has been sitting on my files for almost a year now. It took this long mostly because of real life and I lost my notes/plans for this fic, so it was hard to rework and then try to remember the outline of this story. I promise the chapters are currently being written in advance and are much longer as the story progresses.

Thanks so much for reviews, follows and favourites. I really didn't expect people would be interested in reading Crime Drama/Angst/Mystery grounded kind of fic. I was mostly inspired to write this after watching some Crime Drama mysteries from Netflix.


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